1. Field
Example embodiments relate generally to flow control in communications networks.
2. Description of Related Art
HTTP adaptive streaming (HAS) is emerging as a popular approach to streaming video on demand and real-time content to devices of clients including hand held media devices, laptops, PCs, cell phones, and internet-capable TVs. HAS is adaptive in the sense that the quality of the video can be adjusted based on the bandwidth or data rate available between the server and the client. However, each client individually adapts its video quality independent of other video users sharing the same resources. The link by which HAS content is transmitted between a content source and a client may be regulated by the transmission control protocol (TCP).
TCP constitutes the transport layer of the TCP/internet protocol (IP) suite. In general TCP is responsible for ensuring the reliable delivery of data from host to host which includes handling congestion control by altering an amount of data being sent from a sender when network congestion is detected.
The bandwidth usage of HAS is affected by the congestion control techniques utilized by TCP, which may vary between different implementations of TCP. HAS performance may be evaluated based on how efficiently HAS uses available bandwidth. Accordingly, when considering the performance of HAS, it may be useful to evaluate the effects particular implementations of TCP have on the bandwidth usage of HAS.